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Video: Mixed emotions over Iraq announcement

Transcript of: Mixed emotions over Iraq announcement

LESTER HOLT, anchor:President Obama
's announcement yesterday that all American troops will come home from
Iraq
by year's end has a war weary nation pondering some difficult questions. Chief among them, '
Was it worth it
?' Strictly by the numbers, it

has cost a lot:4,469 Americans killed, more than 32,000 wounded, at a price of more than $700 billion. In the process, a tyrant,
Saddam Hussein
, was toppled, but the elected government now in charge is weak, and, in the view of many, corrupt. And now as the war ends, those Americans who fought in it and those who lost precious loved ones because of it have a lot to say.
NBC
's
Mike Taibbi
has more.

MIKE TAIBBI reporting:the date certain by which all those serving in
Iraq
will be home for good. The war's veterans welcome the news. From
South Carolina
...

Across the country, they've been waiting for this:It's about time. We've been wanting this for a while now.

Unidentified Man #1:...to
Washington state
.

TAIBBI:We did our job. We're
coming home
.

Unidentified Man #2:The military spouses and children are thrilled, of course.

TAIBBI:And it's going to be wonderful having everybody reunited again.

Unidentified Woman:It's coming to an end. That it's just a relief for everybody.

Unidentified Boy:And even a mother who lost her son to the war,
Mary Convoy
, whose son
Jack
was killed in
2006
, is happy now for the parents of other sons and daughters who will soon be home.

TAIBBI:I have a sense of relief. I'm not going to lie. I feel like we did a really good job in
Iraq
.

Ms. MARY CONVOY:But early on, a controversial war that demanded no national commitment was what some called a friends and family war, meaning only friends and family of those who were serving would likely care deeply and personally about how it was going. Retired Colonel
Jack Jacobs
, an
NBC
analyst and

TAIBBI:Most people don't have any connection. There's no skin in the game. You have to knock on something like 150 doors today before you'll find a household from which somebody is serving.

Congressional Medal of Honor recipient:Thus, much of the country soured quickly on a war that seemed endless or pointless and unquestionably costly. No surprise then that many greeted the announced ending of the war with bitterness. Retired Sergeant Chris

Colonel JACK JACOBS, Retired:We're losing family members that -- for no reason now, and I lost three of my best friends out there.

TAIBBI:And
Laura Sharma
in
Los Angeles
, who'll get to hug her son in a few

Tschida, injured himself:We should have never been there.

Sergeant CHRIS TSCHIDA, Retired:The war and now the post-war as controversial as ever.
Mike Taibbi
,
NBC
News, New

U.S. Army Stryker armored vehicles cross the border from Iraq into Kuwait on Wednesday, Aug. 18. The U.S. Army's 4th Stryker Brigade is the last combat unit to leave Iraq as part of the drawdown of U.S. forces. President Barack Obama had set a goal of reducing the number of American troops in Iraq to 50,000 troops by Sept. 1.
(Maya Alleruzzo / AP)
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A member of the U.S. Army's 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, carries an American flag after a departure ceremony at Forward Operating Base Constitution in Abu Ghraib, Iraq, on Aug. 7.
(Moises Saman / The New York Times via Redux Pictures)
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The U.S. Army's 1st Armored Division band plays during a ceremony marking the formal withdrawal from the last checkpoints they helped staff in the Green Zone of Baghdad on June 1.
(Holly Pickett / Redux Pictures)
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U.S. military Humvees are ready to be shipped out of Iraq at a staging yard at Camp Victory on July 6 in Baghdad. Everything from helicopters to printer cartridges are being wrapped and stamped and shipped out of Iraq in one of the most monumental withdrawal operations the American military has ever carried out.
(Maya Alleruzzo / AP)
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Workers sort through broken computer equipment that will be destroyed at a demilitarizing facility for unusable, un-transportable U.S. military equipment at Camp Victory on June 24 in Baghdad.
(Maya Alleruzzo / AP)
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Workers operate machinery that destroys damaged concrete blast walls at the U.S. Joint Base Balad, north of Baghdad, on July 3.
(Maya Alleruzzo / AP)
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Soldiers from 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, clear their weapons before boarding a military aircraft in Baghdad, as they begin their journey home on Aug. 13.
(Maya Alleruzzo / AP)
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An Air Force airman talks on a radio as Army soldiers from 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division prepare to board a military aircraft in Baghdad on Aug 13.
(Maya Alleruzzo / AP)
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Soldiers from 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, are seen on board a military aircraft in Baghdad on Aug. 13, as they begin their journey home.
(Maya Alleruzzo / AP)
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U.S. Army soldiers carry the flag-draped transfer case containing the remains of a U.S. soldier out of a C-17 during a dignified transfer on the tarmac at Dover Air Force Base on Aug. 17 in Dover, Del.
(Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)
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Editor's note:
This image contains graphic content that some viewers may find disturbing.